LANGLEY, B.C. – The road warriors’ run continues.
Spending the last month away from home, the University of Calgary Dinos men’s volleyball team showed no signs of fatigue as they swept Brandon University Bobcats in the Canada West bronze medal match, officially punching their ticket to next weekend’s U SPORTS Men’s Volleyball Championship.
The Dinos jumped out to an early lead before battling through adversity in the second and third for the sweep, 25-16, 30-28, 25-23.
“Very excited for our group. They’ve worked really hard. They had a goal at the beginning of the year to get to a national championship and they’ve done that,” said Calgary bench boss Rod Durrant. “Really pleased with the way we came out and won the first set, and played our best volleyball. The next sets were really close. Brandon is a solid team and they really pushed us with their block and their defence. They played really great defence, but we were able to find a way and win a couple of really tight sets.”
Canada West All-Star Hamish Hazelden once again led the way for the Dinos with 16 kills on the day to go with six digs, three blocks and a pair of aces.
Lincoln Baines was huge at the net yet again, racking up 10 kills on just 16 attempts, hitting .500 for the match. CW All-Rookie selection Louis Kunstmann also had a nice night, adding seven kills and hitting .417. The duo also each notched seven blocks on the night for the Dinos, while rookie Erik Godwin added another five.
Tomas Sorra orchestrated the offence perfectly in the win, dishing out 31 assists while digging a team-high seven balls in the sweep.
Joao Cunha led the way offensively for the Bobcats with a team-high 10 kills. Jake Fleming also had a nice showing from the setter position, dishing out 29 assists and grabbing 10 digs.
After starting the match feeling each other out, the Dinos quickly found their footing and raced ahead. Down 8-7, Kunstmann had a big kill to start a 4-1 run. Brandon closed things back to within one at 11-10, but Calgary could do no wrong, rattling off another 5-0 run. The Dinos finished the decisive first set hitting an outstanding .481 while limiting Brandon to just .125.
Things were much closer in the second. The Dinos trailed 26-25 when a lengthy delay for an officials review ground the match to a halt. Once play resumed, Calgary was able to flip the script, going ahead 28-27, before finishing things off for the commanding 2-0 lead.
The Bobcats showed no quit. After a 6-0 run gave the Dinos a 15-11 lead midway through, clawed back to stay within one much of the rest of the way. But, there would be no comeback in this one as Kunstmann hammered home the game-winner, sending the Dinos into a celebration on the court as they officially advanced to nationals.
“Our guys play as a team, we don’t have one guy who really stands out. It was a good solid team effort and because of that we have earned an opportunity to go to a national championship,” stated Durant.
Dating back to the final weekend of the regular season, Calgary has now been on the road for exactly one month. This outstanding run started with a sweep of MacEwan to cap the regular season with a 13-5 record. The Dinos then advanced through the first two rounds of pool play in both Winnipeg and Langley before this weekend’s return trip out west to clinch their first trip to nationals since 2014.
The Dinos will now head back to where their exciting playoff run began next weekend with a return trip to Winnipeg, starting Friday, March 25. Check back to GoDinos.com for updated information about opponents, game times and more heading into next weekend’s U SPORTS Men’s Volleyball Championship.
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